Riding Greats: Harley-Davidson
It’s easy to forget the heritage of a motor company like Harley-Davidson. The business has seen so many changes over the past hundred or so years that its true identity is not something that’s immediately obvious. Indeed, even as you read, Harley-Davidson is undergoing something of a sea change in engineering, marketing and culture. Now well past mid-life crisis stage, baby boomers are no longer buying the monolithic V-twins that so powerfully characterise the company. With a strong focus on gaining share in the younger market previously dominated by overseas manufacturers, Harley-Davidson is reinventing itself, much like it did at the beginning of its life. And what humble beginnings they were. Taking about years to make, the very first engine designed in Milwaukee by William Harley, then aged just 22, was a mere 116cc and failed miserably. The following effort created a blueprint for the modern motorbike, with a much heavier engine (405cc) and loop-frame pattern. Rather than being a motorised pushbike, this was a real motorbike in every sense. However, for the next few years, very few motorbikes were being made by the team of William Harley, William Davidson, Walter Davidson and Arthur Davidson. Their business model involved selling engines to DIY enthusiasts, rather than motorbike fanatics. However, with clever funding the team managed to buy their first factory, and for the first three years produced no more than 150 vehicles per year. It’s interesting to note that without a major contract to police departments the now incorporated company could well have been an abject failure. Even today the police market is hugely important to the company. The first of the iconic V-twin models appeared in 1907 and offered no more than 8 horsepower from their 880cc engines. This model was improved drastically four years later, incorporating mechanical valves rather than the automatic ones that worked on a vacuum system. With the First World War demanding over 14,000 vehicles from Harley-Davidson as well as a significant overseas distribution network, the company had gone from producing 50 vehicles in 1907 to over 28,000 in 1920. They were now the largest motorbike company in the world. Although sales dropped to just under 4,000 units after the great depression, Harley-Davison was still able to stay afloat and made it out of the crisis as one of the few survivors of the previously thriving motorcycle manufacturing industry. This was mostly thanks to the continued police contracts. During World War Two the company almost exclusively produced for the military. Apart from the popular military model, the WLA, being brought back into production for the Korean War, Harley-Davidson’s motorbikes were now firmly ingrained as a part of civilian life, especially with the ‘biker’ movement, as well as being a staple of military and police forces around the world. Interestingly, as part of the war reparations, BMW were forced to give their latest designs to the American company, who later went on to produce the popular Hummer series directly from the blueprints. The period after the war, right up until the 80’s saw a fair degree of financial turmoil, with the company almost going bankrupt after a sale to AMF (American Machine and Foundry). With declining quality and subsequent drops in sales, the Harley name was slowly becoming a joke. Indeed, the name ‘Hog’ in reference to their motorbikes came from a widely used slur from the 70’s, namely “Hogley-Ferguson”. With a strong change in marketing throughout the 80’s after a heavy tax burden was placed on imports to the US over 700cc, Harley-Davidson went from strength to strength, enjoying massive popularly right through the 90’s. However, with falling stock prices, problems with the police touring models and increasing environmental resistance, not to mention the declining numbers of baby boomers, for whom the name is synonymous with excitement, Harley-Davidson is fast reinventing itself again. With a focus on re-establishing itself amongst younger riders, as well as the introduction of smaller scooter models, the company is, in many ways, going back to its roots.
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